Thursday 9 March 2017 00.56 EST
First published on Wednesday 8 March 2017 12.02 EST

At least 22 girls have been killed in a fire at a government-run home for abused teens, which broke out when residents set mattresses ablaze after an overnight riot and attempt to escape from the overcrowded government-run center.

A crowd of relatives, many of them wailing with grief, gathered outside the Virgen de Asunción home for children up to 18 years old, in the semi-rural suburb of San José Pinula, 25km (15 miles) south-west of the capital, Guatemala City.

'It's a crime to be young and pretty': girls flee predatory Central America gangs

Read more

Nery Ramos, the head of Guatemala’s national police, said at the scene that 19 people, all girls, were confirmed dead. Local hospitals later confirmed the death toll had risen to 22. Dozens – all aged between 13 and 17 – were still being treated for burns on Wednesday.

“This is a painful situation,” Ramos said, adding that the fire had been started by a group of young people at the center. He said a group of residents were isolated by authorities at the center after an escape attempt on Tuesday night. Police were investigating if the two events were connected.

Burnt bodies partially covered in blankets were strewn across the floor of a blackened room in the home, pictures posted to Twitter by the firefighters showed.

On Tuesday night, riot police were sent in to quell unrest over the crowded living conditions at the home. Some 40 residents escaped but were recaptured and isolated, Ramos said.

The Virgen de Asunción home had previously suffered from overcrowding. The head of Guatemala’s social welfare agency, Carlos Rodas, said the shelter had an official capacity of 500, but was housing at least 800 youths.

Distraught relatives said abuse was common at the center, which is run by the ministry for social welfare.

The federal government said in a statement it had sacked the shelter’s director. It also said that before the fire the government had asked that youths with criminal records be moved out of the shelter, but that had not occurred.

Domestic worker Alicia López, 50, had been outside the home for hours trying to find out what happened to her autistic 12-year-old son who came to the center with a drug addiction. She said he had been raped there last week.

“I still don’t have information … I want justice for him,” Lopez said at the home, which takes in abandoned children as well as victims of abuse and trafficking.

Andrea Palomo told reporters in tears that she had brought her 15-year-old son to the home to discipline him. But he told her he was mistreated and complained that gang members there tattooed the children, she said.

Guatemala’s ombudsman for human rights decides whether children are placed in the home, and some parents praised the center. Businesswoman Cristina Puac, 59, said her adopted teenage daughter, Gladys, was placed there for being rebellious and aggressive, and stealing things. “When I came to see her, everything seemed fine,” she said. “She never complained about anything.”